So she tried to smile and play off Melli’s question.
“Girls, I miss your father like I’d miss a skunk that sprayed me,” she announced, hoping to make them smile. “I’m sorry I’m out of sorts tonight—maybe I’m just thinking of getting back to school and teaching tomorrow after my little mini-holiday is over.”
“Yeah, that’s right—you took off some time so you could really enjoy Valentine’s Day, didn’t you?” Jodi raised her eyebrows suggestively. “I forgot to ask you—how was the date?”
“It was…really nice,” Vicky said, careful not to give anything away.
“Well, great!” Melli said enthusiastically. “So is he cute? Are you going to see him again?”
Vicky thought of Chain’s chiseled features, charming crooked smile, and big muscular body.
“Oh, he’ll do,” she said. “And I don’t know if I’ll see him again or not but right now it’s looking like not.”
“But why not?” Jodi demanded. “If you like him, you ought to—”
Her words were cut off by a solid thump from the kitchen.
“What in the world?” Melli frowned. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” Vicky frowned too. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach all of a sudden. A very bad feeling.
“Something probably just fell off the counter,” Jodi said. “Melli, I told you to put that bag of flour away instead of leaving it out.”
“But we’re going to make chocolate chip cookies after the first movie!” Melli protested. “What’s the point of putting everything away when you’re just going to get it out again?”
Vicky sighed. This was a constant bone of contention between her girls. Jodi was a neatnik and Melli was a mess. It was one reason the two of them could never share an apartment, even though they both went to USF.
“I’ll go check on it,” Melli said. “And if it fell off, I’ll clean it up,” she added, making a face at Jodi, just as she used to when they were kids.
“No, wait—” Vicky put out a hand to stop her daughter, but Melli had already jumped off the couch and was walking around the corner towards the kitchen.
It’s nothing—it’s probably nothing, Vicky told herself, her heart beating loudly in her ears. It’s what Jodi said—the bag of flour fell off the counter. That’s all. That’s—
And then Melli was racing back to them on tiptoes, her face white and her eyes wide and fearful.
“Mom,” she whispered, putting a hand to her heart. “Mom there’s a thing in the kitchen.”
“A thing? What kind of th—?” Jodi began in a normal tone of voice but she didn’t get to finish her sentence because Melli leaned over and clapped a hand over her older sister’s mouth.
Jodi’s eyes widened and Melli shook her head and put a finger to her own lips.
“What is it, honey?” Vicky asked in a whisper, feeling sick. “What did you see?”
“I don’t know what it was,” Melli whispered back. “It looked like a lizard but it was walking on its hind legs like a person and—”
That was all Vicky needed to hear.
“Come on,” she told both girls. “We have to get out of here—now.”
They got up as quietly as possible and made a run for the front door. Before she opened it, though, Vicky took a look through the peep hole at the top of the door.
What she saw made her heart sink into her shoes—her front lawn was crawling with Varians.
Vicky had always loved how out of the way and isolated her house was—it was a rarity to have so much privacy in a good-sized city like Tampa. Now, as she watched the lizard-like aliens exploring her front lawn, she regretted it fiercely.
If she’d had any near neighbors, someone would have doubtless called the cops. Unless the aliens were using some kind of cloaking device, like Chain’s scatterlight cloak of course, in which case nobody outside the house would be seeing anything.
Well, one thing was for sure—they couldn’t get out by the front door. And the back door of the house was in the kitchen, so that was out too, she thought, feeling sick. There was only one thing left to do.
“Girls,” she said, looking at her daughters. “We have to hide!”
Chapter Thirty-eight
“And so, this meeting of the Kindred High Council is now called to order,” the droning voice of Commander Lordin, an elderly Blood Kindred who was apparently part of the Council, announced ponderously. “I will be presiding tonight since our High Chancellor, Commander Sylvan, has been called away to see to a medical emergency.”
Right, right—just get on with it, Chain thought, irritably. He was sitting at the back of the Council Chamber, waiting his turn to speak, and the proceedings seemed to be taking forever.
Why in the world Commander Sylvan had thought it was necessary for him to present the T’lix-Kruthe at a Council meeting was beyond Chain. All he knew was that it had kept him here aboard the Mother Ship for several days longer than he liked when all he wanted to do was fly home to Alpha Centauri. There he could be alone in his domicile and lick his wounds in peace.
He wanted to be someplace far from Earth—far enough that he didn’t see the blue and white ball out the viewing windows of the Mother Ship whenever he passed by one.
Far enough to try and forget Victoria and everything she had meant to him.
But instead, here he was—stuck on the Mother Ship and waiting to present the damned artifact he’d gone to so much trouble to steal twice.
I have half a mind to steal it again, Chain thought resentfully. Just walk right out of here with it and leave. Let’s see how long it takes all these pompous males to realize I’m gone and
